The student is referring to Coulomb's Law, which states that the electric force (F) between two charges is given by the formula:
F = k * q1 * q2 / r²
Here, F is the electric force, k is Coulomb's constant (8.99 x 109 N·m²/C²), q1 and q2 are the magnitudes of the charges, and r is the distance between the charges.